As the poet Robert Robert Burns said, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley” and my plans to get many hours of knitting in this weekend did indeed gang aft agley.

I did manage to finish the first sleeve:

And I did cast on a second sleeve:

But that’s it. I’ve not done the finishing around the neck yet. And I need to attach the first sleeve to the body of the sweater using a three-needle bind-off. To do that, I need to pick up stitches along the side of the sweater, and then holding the right sides of sweater and sleeve, bind off the stitches together purl-wise.

So I’d best get to it, shall I?

By the way, there is now a Wendy Knits Lace group on Ravelry, so if you are interested in talking about your projects from the book with other knitters, join up!

Speaking of Signature Needle Arts, did you know that one of the prizes being offered in the Hats for Sailors projects is a $50 gift certificate from SNA? That sounds to me like a good reason to send in a hat! One of many good reasons, that is.

My apologies for the less-than-great-photos. It is dark and creepy outside. The sky a few minutes ago:

Last night I got an email from Lynne (aka Shanti’s mom) about the Hats for Sailors project:

It’s that time of year again. Last year at about this time I launched a project to provide a hat for each of the sailor’s on my daughter’s ship, the USS Decatur. It was an amazing success in that we provided not only a hat for each of the Decatur’s sailors, but also for three Coast Guard Cutters guarding Iraq’s only remaining oil terminal, and the international troops that staffed that terminal … British, Australian AND Iraqi military personnel. Talk about extending a friendly hand. Last year’s hat project brought hats from all over the country, and from England and Singapore.

This year one of our knitters, Sandra Berglund, took on the project and created a Ravelry group called Hats for Sailors. We were hoping to collect enough hats over the year to cover the heads of at least one more ship. So far we’ve collected only 64 hats and will need a lot more to meet our goal. Soooooo, I’m coming back to the tried and true knitters from last year … asking you once again to warm up your knitting needles and start making hats for sailors once again.

The requirements are the same. All hats must be 100% washable wool … no synthetics due to the fire danger. You can use any pattern you want, any color you want … we encourage you to be creative. You can go to the Ravelry’s Hats for Sailors group for free patterns. If you haven’t registered, do so … it’s free and easy. When you are ready to send your hats, contact Sandra for mailing information. Please remember to attach a little note of encouragement to each of the hats you send.

I am hoping that those of you who have blogs of your own will forward this on to your readers and encourage them to participate in this year’s efforts to bring love and warmth to our wonderful sailors.

Thank you all, in advance, for your efforts for this year … we even have a few fun prizes for some of our knitters.

———–

Thanks, Lynne, for passing on this information! I’ve got a hat ready to go.

Meanwhile, my knitting progress is not terribly exciting. I’m almost done with the front my my current lace pullover.

Sleeve knitting will ensure soon!

But I have a question for you all. Can anyone point me in the direction of knitting resources for a pre-teen knitter (a 10-year-old girl in this case). Any knitting website or books with information geared towards young knitters? Thanks in advance.

Hey, guess what? I finally finalized the patterns for the two lace sweaters I knit this summer.

First, the cleverly named “Lace Tunic.”

The pattern is available for sale in my Ravelry shop. I put it up for sale on Friday and a knitter already found an error in one of the charts (thank you for pointing that out to me, Pirkko), so I’ve just put a corrected version up. If you’ve already purchased the pattern you should receive an email from Ravelry notifying you of the update you can download. The error is posted on the pattern page, too, if you just want to correct your pattern — I left 2 decrease symbols off one row of Chart A. Sorry about that!

Anyhow, this sweater has the following finished measurements: Chest: 41½ (49½, 57½, 65½)”, Length: 26 (28, 30, 30)” — it is meant to be an oversized fit and you can adjust the final measurements upwards or downwards depending on how you block it — lace is forgiving.

The four different sizes use 1100 (1250, 1400, 1550) yards fingering weight yarn. I used Hand Maiden Swiss Silk (100% silk) but really you can use pretty much any fingering weight yarn that you can block and it will hold its shape after blocking.

It has a simple construction: you knit up from the bottom, first a border pattern, then an all-over body pattern. It has a v-neck with a narrow edge, and I joined the shoulders and the sleeves to the body using a three-needle bind-off for added strength for the seams and neatness.

The second pattern has the highly original name “Lace Tunic With Fancy Border.” It is listed on Ravelry here.

This is another oversized sweater, available in four sizes: Chest: 44 (51, 58, 65½)”, Length: 26 (28, 30, 30)” . It uses the same amounts of yarn as the first sweater.

The construction is slightly different. You first knit a border pattern sideways, turn it and pick up stitches along the long straight edge, and knit the body pattern up from there. After that, the construction is pretty much the same as the first sweater.

The lace patterns for both sweaters are charted only. (Sorry, all you chart-haters out there!)

And I’m using the same yarn again for my current work in progress: another lace tunic constructed the same way as these two patterns, but a simpler one — just an all-over lace pattern for the entire sweater. This will work well with more variegated yarns.

The back is done:

Great photo-styling — it’s hanging off the edge of the table.

I’m hoping to get a fair chunk of knitting time today to make more progress on the front.

I have more Hand Maiden Swiss Silk in my stash — enough for three more lace tunics. I might be a little obsessed with this concept, and with this yarn. But I have discovered that these are sweaters I can actually wear without getting too warm — I wear them over a plain tank dress and they are great for the office.

Gotta go — Lucy is waiting on the couch, hoping I’ll come sit down so she can spend some time napping in my lap.

It might be time to start thinking about building an ark. Lucy is looking for another kitty so they can line up two-by-two to get on said ark. The view out my window taken a few minutes ago:

I do have a superpower when it comes to rain. It has rained every day this week, but I did not once have to use my umbrella — until this afternoon. There had always been, as if by magic, a break in the rain when I’m going into or coming home from work. It was nice while it lasted!

On the knitting front, things are a bit boring, I’m afraid. I did finish the back of my sweater. Here is a photo of it rolled up into a tidy ball:

And I just barely started on the front.

I’m having a lot less than my usual knitting time this week, but I hope to make up for it over the weekend.

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